


In the Garden of Eden (Looked Over and I Saw Your Face)

by DandelionDrabbles (AnonymousDandelion)



Series: Dialogue Prompt Fills [22]
Category: Good Omens (Radio), Good Omens (TV), Good Omens - Neil Gaiman & Terry Pratchett
Genre: Awkward Crowley (Good Omens), Crowley Loves Humanity (Good Omens), Crowley's Name is Crawly | Crawley (Good Omens), Crowley.exe has stopped working, First Meetings, Fluff, Fluff and Humor, Footnotes, Humor, M/M, Moonlight, Pre-Canon: Good Omens, Quote: Ngk (Good Omens), Scene: Garden of Eden (Good Omens), Snake Crowley (Good Omens), and when i say pre-canon i mean this takes place before it went down like a lead balloon, even more extremely excessive use of footnotes, extremely excessive use of ngk, fluff dialogue prompt, now with fanart!
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-08
Updated: 2021-03-08
Packaged: 2021-03-15 22:03:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 700
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28820436
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AnonymousDandelion/pseuds/DandelionDrabbles
Summary: On top of the wall is an angel.With a flaming sword.Ngk.The smart, self-preserving thing to do would presumably be to turn and flee. Since Crawly is apparently neither smart nor self-preserving, he stays in place and stares at the wall, at the flaming sword, and most of all at the fluffy-haloed angel standing silhouetted against the full moon.(Fluff dialogue prompt fill #6.)***Now with fanart by fractalgeometry!***
Relationships: Aziraphale & Crowley (Good Omens), Aziraphale/Crowley (Good Omens)
Series: Dialogue Prompt Fills [22]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1996120
Comments: 14
Kudos: 66
Collections: Aspec-friendly Good Omens





	In the Garden of Eden (Looked Over and I Saw Your Face)

**Author's Note:**

> UPDATE, 3/7/21: The absolutely fantastic [fractalgeometry](https://archiveofourown.org/users/fractalgeometry/pseuds/fractalgeometry) has created a lovely piece of fanart for this ficlet!! The drawing can be found embedded (with permission) in the text below. :D 
> 
> Prompt in the end notes, as usual. Title from "Eden", by Rick Springfield. Word count 700 plus footnotes, because I'm hopeless.
> 
> ...also, uh. Speaking of footnotes. I outdid myself and wrote so many that I ran out of characters in the end notes, so the first several are being inserted here. :P The rest of these notes should make sense in context; for now, just skip to the main text of the work and enjoy!
> 
> ~~~
> 
> 1 Yeah, yeah, _get up there and make some trouble,_ etc., but that wasn’t exactly specific.[return to text]
> 
> 2 Aside from there being everything wrong with Hell.[return to text]
> 
> 3 Except for the hellhounds. And no, Hastur’s toad does not count.[return to text]
> 
> 4 Admin’s elemental preferences tend more towards sulfur.[return to text]
> 
> 5 At this point in time, the Underworld mostly contains brimstone, empty torture pits, and bored demons. Also an early form of paperwork, because Dagon is Taking Initiative.[return to text]
> 
> 6 Though he also likes the unicorns.[return to text]
> 
> 7 There’s nothing wrong with Adam’s conversational skills under ordinary circumstances, actually. It’s just that he’s been a bit preoccupied with the whole naming-the-animals project, so when he first saw Crawly he pointed, announced “Serpent!” and then immediately turned aside to puzzle over the platypus.[return to text]
> 
> 8 Sleeping, they call it. Maybe Crawly will try it out sometime. Doesn’t seem from the outside like it’d be much fun, but hey, you never know until you try.[return to text]
> 
> 9 Alas, as the esteemed reader no doubt surmises, it will transpire that in fact troublemaking cannot wait any longer. For the esteemed reader’s edification, below is a sneak peak of the conversation that will occur on the morrow.  
>  **Serpent:** So what’s the deal with that fruit anyway?  
>  **Woman:** God said we’ll die if we eat it.  
>  **Serpent:** Oh, yikes. Gosh. Hang on, but I thought it was just supposed to let you know the difference between good and bad? I mean, granted that does sound kinda stressful, but why would it kill you? That doesn’t make sense.  
>  **Woman:** Oh yeah, good point! *crunching sounds* Mmm, tasty. Hey Man, want a bite?  
>  **Serpent:** W-w-wait, that’s maybe not such a great idea, She might have been serious, I was just wond— ugh, too late, never mind. Say, what’re you doing with those fig leaves?[return to text]
> 
> 10 It’s really flaming like anything.[return to text]
> 
> 11 Esteemed reader, take note of this moment: it marks the creation of a new and very valuable word, one of a tiny selection which will survive Babel intact, and which will remain in use, virtually unchanged, throughout millennia of linguistic drift.[return to text]
> 
> [Footnotes 12–23 can be found in end notes].

Crawly likes Eden.

True, he’s still not clear on what he’s supposed to be _doing_ in Eden.[1] But he’s in no rush to figure it out. After all, once he makes trouble, he’ll probably have to report back Down.

And, well… not that there’s anything wrong with Hell[2] , but the Underworld doesn’t have much in the way of plants. Or animals.[3] Or humans. Or oxygen.[4] Or any number of other things.[5]

So far, the humans are Crawly’s favorite.[6] They’re clever, and funny, and _fun._ Crawly met them both earlier, and he especially wants to speak to the Woman again. The Man didn’t seem so good at conversation[7], but Crawly likes watching them both talking together, walking together, eating together, cuddling together…

Point is, humans are interesting. And so is everything else in Eden. And so Crawly is enjoying watching and slithering around and…

…and, um, doing reconnaissance. Plotting troublemaking. Right. That’s why he’s exploring. Obviously.

Anyway. It’s nighttime, and the humans are doing that thing where they lie down with their eyes closed.[8] Crawly’s been meaning to ask the Woman to explain about the Tree of Knowledge (he heard them talking about it, but didn’t quite follow), but that can wait until tomorrow… and troublemaking can wait longer.[9]

For now, he’s exploring eastwards.

Until his exploration is cut short.

By a wall.

And on top of the wall is an angel.

With a flaming sword.[10]

 _Ngk._ [11]

The smart, self-preserving thing to do would presumably be to turn and flee. Since Crawly is apparently neither smart nor self-preserving[12], he stays in place and stares at the wall, at the flaming sword [13], and most of all at the fluffy-haloed angel standing silhouetted against the full moon.

This is, he decides, more reconnaissance. Crawly is sneaking around the garden, spying on its guardian, hiding in plain sight, and the angel will never…

“Hello,” says the angel, looking straight down at Crawly.[14]

“Ngk,” says Crawly, out loud this time.[15] What does being smitten in corporeal form feel like?[16] This will be a first.

The angel cranes his head back, then looks downwards again, making no move to do anything with his sword other than hold it, slightly uncomfortably, off to the side. “What are you looking at?”

“Ngk,” said Crawly again.[17] And then, because _I’m looking at your sword_ seems dangerous and _I’m looking at you_ seems creepy, he blurts out the first non-sword, non-angel thing he sees. “Sssky!”

“Hm?” The angel glances upwards again, as if trying to follow Crawly’s serpentine gaze. “The stars are lovely,” he observes.

 _That_ remark prompts all sorts of thoughts Crawly doesn’t feel like thinking. His tongue decides to cover the moment by babbling, “No, I mean, not, it, just, the moon, it’s, see, the moon is high tonight, it frames you well, it’s like… _ngk._ ”

Crawly bites his tongue[18], belatedly, because so much for trying to avoid dangerous or creepy statements. The worst of it is, the thing his tongue said is _true._ [19] The moonlight seems like a natural extension of the angel’s halo, which in turns seems like a natural extension of his hair, which in turn…

“Ah,” says the angel, sounding very confused, but at least cutting off Crawly’s spiraling train of thought.

There’s an immensely awkward pause, the angel staring down from the wall and the serpent staring up from the ground.

Between the flaming of the sword and what would definitely be the flaming of Crawly’s cheeks if snake physiology worked that way[20], Crawly doesn’t last long.

“Um, ngk, gotta go, ssssee you later,” he gasps out, and starts slithering away before the angel can even respond.

As he heads back westwards, Crawly can’t help but notice in himself a distinct absence of smittenness.[21]

And when he glances back, the angel is still standing there on the wall, sword in hand, bathed in moonlight.

Crawly spends the rest of the night brainstorming idioms.[22] Next time he sees this angel, he’s going to be prepared. He’s going to say something _suave._ [23]

Because, bizarrely, he hopes there will be a next time.

**Author's Note:**

> [Footnotes 1–11 can be found in beginning notes].  
>   
>  12 In his defense, Crawly is generally self-preserving enough. However, the being that will prove an exception to most of his self-preservation instincts over the next six thousand years is currently standing atop a wall a short distance away carrying a flaming sword.[return to text]
> 
> 13 Crawly makes a mental note to remember that sword. Admittedly, he might be better able to appreciate the aesthetic without the prospect of being smitten by it. It’s definitely impressive, though.[return to text]
> 
> 14 Maybe Crawly should have given a little more thought to the wisdom of the whole “in plain sight” thing.[return to text]
> 
> 15 If the esteemed reader is wondering just how a snake can be capable of emitting a verbal expression containing three consonants, none of which happen to include an _s,_ then… well, then the esteemed reader can feel free to keep on wondering, and the author will wholeheartedly join them in this endeavor. In the end, some skills can only be attributed to miraculous provenance.[return to text]
> 
> 16 Incidentally, it feels much the same as being smitten in non-corporeal form, except a little more corporeal.[return to text]
> 
> 17 He’s getting a lot of practice with this new word. By the time the night is out, it will be permanently ingrained in Crawly’s vocabulary.[return to text]
> 
> 18 Fortunately, without venom. That would have been embarrassing, to say the least.[return to text]
> 
> 19 That might, possibly, be related to his tongue’s decision to say it.[return to text]
> 
> 20 Not that Crawly’s corporation works according to proper snake physiology either. Eh, who needs physiology anyway?[return to text]
> 
> 21 Or at least, a distinct absence of one kind of smittenness. As for the other kind… well.[return to text]
> 
> 22 _Someone_ has to invent pick-up lines, and it’s not like the humans have had any reason to do so yet.[return to text]
> 
> 23 If the esteemed reader is thinking judgmental thoughts about the suaveness of the pick-up line “that went down like a lead balloon,” the esteemed reader should bear in mind that suave plans often display a remarkable tendency to experience dramatic defenestration when the moment to be put into action arrives. Under the circumstances, the fact that Crawly will manage to utilize enough vowels the following day to talk about balloons at all is quite impressive.[return to text]
> 
> Prompt: "The moon is high tonight, it frames you well."
> 
> ...I fit twenty-three footnotes and five uses of "ngk" into a seven-hundred-word ficlet. And the overall footnotes word count comes to higher than the official ficlet word count. Y'all, this is it. My fanfic career has peaked. It's all downhill from here.
> 
> As always, I would be absolutely thrilled to hear from you if you enjoyed and feel like leaving a comment. Words, emojis, keysmashes, etc.; all are welcome (lurkers are valid and appreciated as well)! And if you'd like to laugh at my ridiculous footnoting practices and word count shenanigans, be my guest. XD Have a lovely day.
> 
> UPDATE: And thank you so much again to [fractalgeometry](https://archiveofourown.org/users/fractalgeometry/pseuds/fractalgeometry) for the artwork above! <3


End file.
